Gloom Keep
by Lord Kelvin
Summary: Once she disappears at night, only weakening screams guide her friends towards their goal...or peril.
1. Captured by Joy

Author's note: Don't let italics frighten you. They inherit the function of horizontal separators. Suggestions welcome.

Disclaimer: none of the characters that appear in this story belong to me, but to their respectful owners: SEGA and Sonic Team.

**Gloom Keep**

Chapter 1: Captured by Joy

It was the second day of Sonic's forced vacation in Germany: a small trip, during which Amy agreed not to whine about hugs.

_Amy had finally cornered her Romeo in a dead end street of Istambul, Turkey. High noon, nobody around. There was no one that could help Sonic out of his predicament this time, not even his best friend, Tails. There was no place to hide; the ancient buildings looked too hard for his head to crack. Three huge walls enclosed him, leaving only a narrow passage for the friendly enemy, who was gaining on him. Sonic gulped, jumping from one edge of the alley to another, looking for a way to dodge the rosy menace.  
_

_The pink hedgehog soon came with a wide smile and happiness all over her face, "So, are you going to date me now?" she asked giddily._

_"No…" her reluctant male friend responded.  
_

_Amy clasped her hands in joy, "That means…we're getting married!"_

_She lunged at the hedgehog with smothers and kisses, ready to squeeze the poor creature almost to death in a lethal, yet lovely hug._

_"No…" Sonic mumbled out, and attempted to dash out of the dead end._

_It was tricky. Amy knew his methods well, and would extend her hands wide like a football goalkeeper, knowing he'll come right into her firm feminine grip. Last month he tried to curve left from the wall. She tickled him off balance into a blush. Then Sonic tried to blast right, and his nose bumped straight into her lips. Now he would rush right through the middle, crouching down to slide as he slipped between her legs and into freedom._

_"Yes!" he exclaimed, seeing no more Amy on the horizon._

_And...the hero couldn't crawl any further. The date-happy hedge caught him by his large shoes and then dropped down on his back, grinning. She wasn't heavy to brush off, but his footwear was taken hostage! The female squeezed his sneakers together, trying to twist them off Sonic's feet. _

_"Say _Marriage_!" she ordered. _

_"Uncle!" he whined, desperately flapping his hands on the ground  
_

_"I said _Marriage_!!!"_

_"No, no, uncle!"  
_

_He was immediately let go in disgrace, "That means my uncle, the mayor of Station Square, will take away your benefits and you'll have to pay up all the food bills and traffic tickets," she said in a serious, threatening tone, which was a rarity for that person. And if that doesn't get your hardcore love on me, nothing will, she thought.  
_

_"No, I meant, I can't say that because…" Sonic continued._

_Amy turned around with hands on her hips and an angry glare in her eyes, "Because what?"  
_

_The heavily thinking hedgehog used all of his imagination to construct an ingenious idea in his brain. Do or die. He'd never survive his chilidog debtsl! "Because we are going on a nice romantic trip to…"_

_Slowly, word-by-word, he explained it. Amy's eyes got their jolly shine back and the usual smile returned as he continued speaking. It was a point of no return and he couldn't get away with the 'I forgot' act in such a situation._

_"…Germany!" he finished. "Yeah, that's right! We're going to Germany!"_

_"Really?" Amy asked, cuteness mounting enough to make a Geiger counter blare.  
_

_"Under one condition, though," Sonic warned her, having had enough time to think while her cheeks turned pinker and pinker...more pink than he imagined possible.  
_

_"Okay," came the reply from Sonic's unsuspecting victim._

_Sonic smiled, knowing that he would get something good in the deal as well, "You can't talk or even think about dates!"  
_

_"Okay!" Amy screamed as she jumped at him, putting her hands around his neck and tying them up in a triple slipknot for safekeeping.  
_

The trip idea was nice, but he soon regretted postponing speeding tickets, because he'd eventually find a price above his life's budget.

_The hedgehog followed Amy's lead with all of her luggage set on his: shoulders, back, head, hands, and even mouth. Various suitcases and bags made him look like a wobbly-moving mountain. Luckily for him, the furry couldn't see, how silly a walking mountain of his type looked._

_"Which way now?" Sonic murmured from under the baggage._

_Missing the question, Amy saw something that sparkled her interest, "Hold on a moment…" she told the hedgehog before running off._

_To Sonic's luck, the load-blind hedgehog didn't hear her, too._

_Sonic wobbled around the airport's terminal seeking the person that was supposed to direct him. "Amy!" Sonic called her, but didn't get any desirable response. "Amy! Where are you?" He called again, this time with anger building up below the hard-to-carry load, but the mass the creature had on his shoulders didn't let anyone hear him. _

_People simply watched the hill get on the moving escalator, walk up two steps and trip, sending its weight down to the ground and on the unlucky creature that happened to be at the spot of the fall. The furry got up in a few seconds, holding his aching, bruised nose. Anger turned into fury as he got to the escalator's top and set his gaze down to the first floor of the terminal._

_Ugh… Where is she! he thought, rubbing his nose. She couldn't have gotten far..._

_Once realization came to him entirely, the hedgehog started looking at the bright side of his situation and smiled._

_"What am I worried about? Maybe she finally…dang!"_

_The newly born freedom idea was shattered, because he noticed the relentless annoyance in the end. Signs of pleasure left him instantly._

_The female was talking to a furry group, who happened to be: Shadow, Rouge, Knuckles and Tails. All members had suitcases, indicating that the bunch was going somewhere. Sonic's mind tried to convince his conscious self that they were certainly not going along with Amy and him, but obviously somewhere else. Sadly, even the biggest of hopes were destroyed when the gang got to the second floor. His eyes widened in shock of such a company seeing him and Amy together. Fear seized him as he imagined himself being mocked in the outcome. The amount of adrenaline in Sonic's body increasing rapidly. An all-time winner couldn't let them see such a situation, which would mean certain defeat against the annoyance in the public eye and a funny subject of conversation._

_"W-what are all of you doing here?" he asked in a stunned voice, trying to calm down_

_"We were invited to tag along with you two lovebirds!" Knuckles exclaimed with a fake hint of friendly happiness._

_Sonic's nightmares came true. It was never meant for them to see him in a way like this. He simply stood there, frozen in sheer terror, but conscious enough to see the evil smirk on Shadow's face._

Even when all seemed lost, the most tormented hero tried to persuade his colleagues not to go with him.

_The group entered the enormous white Boeing jet that was supposed to take them to Germany, meaning that Sonic had to take action before it was too late and the airplane had taken off. He sighed and tried the puny chances with Knuckles._

_"How's the Master Emerald, Knux?" he asked with fingers crossed for luck._

_Knuckles raised an eyebrow, ignorant to the reason of the question, "Fine."_

_"But is it safe to simply leave it alone on the island?"  
_

_"Yup," the echidna replied, surprising his conversationalist._

_"You know how dangerous it is to-" the sneaky hero continued his plot until he stumbled upon realization, "-what?"_

_Knuckles grinned after finally understanding the point, "Tails put an alarm system so it would be okay for sure. Don't worry, I'll be with you through your whole vacation!"_

_Shit…_

Sonic's plan started to fail in the very beginning, but the main problem with the name Shadow could still be removed with success. At least that was what the blue fiend thought.

_Everybody except Sonic, who was trying to pick the right moment to talk to Shadow, took their seats and got ready for take off. The nervous hedgehog stared at the neighboring brown leather seat with Amy on it.  
_

_Okay, no matter what that bastard says, I won't get intimidated, thought the hedgehog and immediately ran up to his rival's seat._

_He caught Shadow reading the paper he had brought to reduce boredom during the flight._

_"What do you want, faker?" Shadow spat out, not raising his eyes from the newspaper._

_Okay, Sonic… This is it! What could get him out of here? Maria! Wait, she's dead… That won't do. Eggman! That's right, Eggman! Sonic beamed, as he finally got the perfect plan to get rid of Shadow's company for the painful trip period._

_Unfortunately, he glimpsed at Shadow's literature and noticed a very interesting article: _The notorious evil scientist, Dr. Eggman died in an attempt of causing an earthquake_.  
_

_"Eggman died?!"  
_

_Shadow glared at the noisy hedgehog irritably, "Yeah…and if you don't want to join him, you better keep your annoying voice down."_

_The hopeless victim of circumstance had nothing to do but get back to his seat and enjoy Amy's company for the rest of the trip. He sat down, still dazed by what he had read, and let his mind drown in thoughts._

_Why does life hate me so much? For all the times I wanted that doctor dead, he decides to abandon me in the worst moment!_

It was no use to back away from his promise, even if he explained the situation to Amy. The bluish rodent tried to be positive during the trip, for it was the only way, which would help him stay comparatively sane.

The girls decided to go on a picnic on that bright and sunny summer day, but, despite the fact that the idea seemed pretty good and no one objected, the group pushed picnic time from noon to evening. Sonic needed the time to learn German for "picnic".

Everyone had packed only the essential things, like junk food, soft drinks, blankets, a computer, and an inflatable beach ball.

After some hours of trying to find the right place for the meal and a long way of failing to do so, the group was getting quite tired and exasperated after an extensive time of traveling on foot. However, that wasn't their main plight.

Rouge gave Sonic and Shadow a death glare, "If it weren't for you guys, we would have already been on the way back!" She exclaimed.

"It's not my fault the faker here is afraid of ants," Shadow said with a smirk.

Sonic didn't respond but simply looked at him, as if saying: "I hate you."

"If I don't see the spot that fits everyone in five minutes, I'm going home!" Rouge threatened no one in particular.

A moment later, Amy joined the whining bat, "Ohhh…my feet hurt," the female moaned and put the sandwich basket she had on the ground

"Maybe your future husband would like to carry you?" Shadow offered Sonic's services to the girl to enjoy some field drama.

Sonic grinned victoriously, "In your dreams, Shadow! We've made it!" he exclaimed, pointing at a beautiful green field with a forest nearby.

"No flowers that Rouge is allergic to, no wet puddles that Knuckles hates, no annoying kids that Shadow doesn't like, no radio towers or electricity cables that could harm Tails' computer, and absolutely no ants!"

Everyone sighed with relief, as a perfect picnic spot that would suit everyone was found. The green grass harmonized with leaves rustling in a dense old-growth forest. Everything would be silent if it wasn't for the light summery breeze and the campers. It could have seemed that nature decided to give a restful retreat for the busy furries. Even the hot, blazing sun had hidden itself behind the white, swiftly floating clouds, making the air warm and snug. Even though it was a great moment to have a nice, peaceful meal, there could be no such term available while the group was together. Shadow and Knuckles used the fizzy soda pop as a short-range weapon against Sonic and broke the peace. The hedgehog had no choice but to retaliate, which caused a chain reaction among the eaters.

But as all good things in life begin, they end unexpectedly fast. There was no exception this time.

"Woo-hoo! I'm number one!" Sonic yelled as he fell on the large blue picnic blanked.

"You're only saying that because every time you missed me you hit somebody else," Shadow mocked..

"It wasn't this fun since the time Eggman used that Rolling Egg of Doom," Sonic chuckled, seeing that the humorous memories of past battles with the deceased villain came, "Knucklehead, you got your tail flattened that time!"

Knuckles didn't look amused by those painful, yet funny memoirs, "Don't remind me...they sent me to a veterinary urologist in hospital...whatever evil that meant."

"But that stopped the device. Eggman surely lost it…"

"Like he ever had it," Shadow added.

The junk food made its effects visible to the naked eye as everyone got tired and sleepy. It was not a surprise that even the ever-lasting arguments between Sonic and Shadow ended and both of them settled down.

"I'll really miss that guy…" Sonic said in a barely hearable tone and yawned.

His half-open eyes gazed at the darkening sky. Sun was slowly and steadily disappearing from his sight, falling straight into the solitude of the forest, which soon showed the furries that it was nighttime.

They previously planned to get away from the cement jungle only for a short moment, and no one had even predicted spending the night far from civilization. At least, it seemed so for an untrained eye. Nobody was actually getting ready to leave the place that gave the whole group a rare time of enjoyment and relaxation. That is, until Rouge remembered her needs.

"I'm not going to sleep on the cold ground, no matter what you guys say."

"You'll have to go all alone back to the hotel room. And do you know that muggers may have arranged a date for you already?"

"Hmph… I can stand up for myself."

Knuckles chuckled, for a memory of a similar situation came to him.

"What happened the last time you said that? Oh, yeah! I remember!" exclaimed the echidna.

"You tripped and hit yourself on the head, giving that guard robot enough time to turn around and electrocute you. You should have seen your hair. Hilarious!" the dreadlocked male told his story, trying hard not to laugh.

"Ah ha! So you _were_ following me!"

Everyone laughed.

"But still…the ground I'm not going to sleep on," said the bat and turned her back on Knuckles as a clear sign of protest.

Tails has been pulling something out of his backpack for the last ten minutes and got into the conversation at its turning point when he was done.

"Why sleep on the ground when I've got tents?" the vulpine asked, showing a few plastic bags with a large piece of fabric and metal rods in each.

The group got quiet for a moment until Sonic broke the silence.

"Tails, you never told us you had those."

"And Knuckles never told you that he had sleeping bags," responded the fox.

"Traitor! Those were for me and…and I'm not sharing!"

"Oh come on, Knuckles! You have enough for everyone and if you don't want me to tell them that…" Tails started, but Knuckles put his gloved hand on the fox's mouth and silenced him.

"Okay, Tails, you won. I won't need all of them, so…everyone gets one!" Knuckles announced with a troubled smile on his face.

Knuckles' actions seemed quite peculiar for the whole group, but strangely enough, they didn't bother to ask, but got busy with the tents.

Constructing one seemed to be an easy task at first, but most campers found it pretty difficult. The only one that didn't have a problem with making the tent look just as it was showed in the manual was Tails. He managed to fully put it up in less than two minutes. Other furries looked very miserable to him, while trying to make it stand firmly on the ground. The smart fox had no choice but to help them, as he was never able to bear the guilt's attacks after doing otherwise. He came to aid Sonic at first, and got him out of the tent's fabric that made him look like a mummy. Then Tails assisted Knuckles and Rouge, so the echidna wouldn't have to impress her with masculine tent dropping skills.

Amy was next. The pink female hedgehog couldn't put the stabilizing poles into the ground, so that they would keep the tent from rolling up into its previous state. Shadow was the most problematic case of them all, though. He refused to get his shelter into a usable condition with team spirit, and inconvincibly decided to take care of it by himself.

It took Shadow an hour to get to the roots of the problem, but he was satisfied in the end. He had victoriously conquered the tent and was finally ready to take some well-deserved rest called sleep. Meanwhile, the rest of the gang had already fallen aslumber and enjoyed their trip to Dreamland. He joined them later, but he did, nevertheless.

The bright full moon rose into the heavens to guard the sky until the end of its shift. Its light, like a lonely guardian, was sent down to the ground below, preventing total darkness from engulfing it. Although, it could have seemed that the guard would shield it well enough, the situation was much more serious in reality and the solitary glow was not adequate to stop darkness from unleashing its sinister powers upon the world.

In the mean time, all was tranquil and undisturbed, unprepared for the chaotic touch of danger.


	2. Deserted Grounds

Chapter 2: Deserted Grounds

It was a silent night for the sleepy campers. Peace and tranquility roamed through the night, leaving no signs of sadness or plight. A lonely entity lit the dark blue sky as it moved along the heavens, glancing down at the world it was guarding. However, this gloomy keeper could not stand at its post forever, as fiendish clouds invaded the sky like locusts, separating the terra above with Earth below.

Rain trickled down from the firmament, preventing the peaceful lands from seeing the horrid battle above, but even that technique couldn't make every soul oblivious.

The scene could not last forever, though. The mighty star, the sun, with its power unmatched throughout the solar system, removed all signs of night as it rose, illuminating the part of the world the furries were in. Yet it was powerless against the dim clouds hanging high over the land.

The sixth hour of the day had come when Shadow felt like it was time to get up. He walked out of the tent, in which he had put so much energy the previous day, and yawned, as if letting the world know that he was ready to meet whatever fate had to throw at him. Shadow looked around the camp and thought that everyone was still asleep at first. He smiled, thinking about the opportunities he had at that moment.

He moved on the dewy green grass silently, in order not to disturb anyone resting.

He was disappointed when he walked past Sonic's tent. Shadow's rival wasn't there, but he was sitting on a rotten log behind it. The hedgehog looked strange. It seemed that something troubled him. Sonic's evil counterpart approached him, ready to give a morning mocking routine, but refrained from doing so. He could see that his rival was in depression already.

"What's the matter, faker?"

"I had a rough night! Okay?" retorted the hedgehog before Shadow could say anything else.

It was a sign that Sonic was in a condition fitting for making fun of him. Shadow grinned.

"The poor little faker had problems sleeping?" he asked in a mocking tone.

"Shut up…"

"You can tell me all about the Boogie-man in your tent. I'm sure it'll be a fun story," Shadow said as he sat down on the wooden log near him.

Sonic didn't say a word but simply snarled.

"You muted or something?" Shadow asked.

"Go away," Sonic said without emotion, not looking in Shadow's way.

"Hallelujah, he spoke!"

Suddenly, Shadow received a punch in the jaw from Sonic. The impact made him slide off the tree trunk and skid on the wet grass a few feet. He didn't expect such an explosive and hostile reaction.

"Why, you!" Shadow snapped, snorting as he got up.

Then, he lunged at the uncooperative hedgehog without warning and a fight started between the two. It would have had a painful turnout if it weren't for Knuckles' appearance. The strong echidna separated the infuriated fighters to bring some order.

"Stop it, you two!" he shouted and pushed both of them to the ground into opposite directions. Seeing that the fight was over, he decided to get to the roots of the problem. But he was wrong and, as soon as the two got up, they restarted trying to beat each other to a pulp.

Knuckles rolled his eyes and tried to get his peaceful point through, the hard way. The two were caught in the echidna's powerful palms and raised above the ground.

Everybody breathed hard.

"What was the matter this time?" Knuckles asked, breaking the tension that hovered in the air because of them.

"He's a faker! Let me put him out!" the blue hero's rival scoffed.

"Sonic?"

"I told him I couldn't get any sleep at night, but he kept on asking for it!" Sonic yelled angrily.

"Whatever…now let got of me," said Shadow indifferently.

"If you insist," Knuckles said with a grin and dropped both.

The hedgehogs were still glaring daggers at each other until Shadow got up and retreated from the scene, cleaning his fur out of grass stains with disgust.

"You two just can't get along," the echidna said with a chuckle in the end.

The azure hero ignored his companion and simply went to see if Tails was awake.

Meanwhile, Rouge was talking with Tails about an immediate return to the hotel. Sonic caught them at the point of no return, as the relentless, conniving bat convinced his vulpine friend of her righteousness.

The fox sighed, "Okay…I'm with you."

"Glad you could see it my way," Rouge smiled as she went out of Sonic's sight, not saying a word to him.

"Morning," the hedgehog greeted his friend.

"Good morning, Sonic," Tails replied with a usual welcoming smile on his face.

"What were you two talking about?" Tails was asked with a hint of suspicion, knowing the absent member of the previous conversation.

"That we should go back to the hotel. We have no food left," told the kitsune after a moment of thinking.

"Dang…it reminds me that I haven't had breakfast yet," Sonic said, rubbing his empty, growling tummy. "But are you sure that there's none?"

"Well…Knuckles sleepwalked at night and ate everything we had left from yesterday," the fox explained with a sigh.

The clever hero grinned, "Not everything. Amy teased me with cake, trying to get a kiss yesterday. I bet that she saved it!"

It was when the rodent dashed to the tent of his detestably pink lover and got inside, forgetting about the girl's deadly grip and extreme affection towards him. Luckily, she wasn't in the tent, letting Sonic take a careful look around and find the confectionery treat. And there it was, hidden behind the female's travel bag. He smiled as his palm got placed on a pink ribbon and his fingers gently pulled one of the tie's discarded ends. The small cardboard box was now defenseless against the famished mammal. Sonic placed his gloved hands on the white border, separating him and the goodness inside, and removed the cover revealing a layer cake colored in many shades of blue. Azure icing covering the surface of the sweet object, topped with a circle of light blue creamy substance, formed into little towers, was before him. The tiny towers surrounded a garish "I love you, Sonic", sprinkled with a large amount of multicolored sugar bits.

The hedgehog's pupils widened, making his mouth water in anticipation of the cake's heavenly taste. Without any delay, the sugary treat was brought near the anxious hero's digestion system. He could smell the tempting morsel and get a small preview of what he was about to experience, as it got closer. Without taking a single blink, he made the whole cake disappear...into thin air? It could have been taken as magic, but it would be pretty obvious to a well-informed spectator. It was a matter of Sonic's ability to do things at a difficultly apprehendable rate. Extreme speed, a life long companion, helped Sonic ease holding the heavy meal and transport it into his body for digestion. Signs of pleasure and satisfaction invaded his face sending a bright, warm and fiendishly innocent smile, which was soon broken by a loud outbreak of gasses collected thanks to his sweet moment.

Tails heard the disturbing sound coming from inside the tent and decided to come and check whether Sonic was doing well deep in the confines of Amy's lair. Maybe even try to save him on account that the odds of getting kissed inside margined on infinity. And depending on the length of time on the 0x axis... Tails laughed at how dubious it looked. Kisses are integers!

Sonic's fateful friend peeked through the open entrance and saw nobody but the blue hero, lying there on her soft sleeping bag.

"Sonic?" he uttered silently, surprised by the scene.

"Yeah?" Tails' life long buddy answered with eyes closed and hands behind his head.

"Where's Amy?" the youngster asked after looking around again.

"Beats me," said the hedgehog and got up. "I was lucky this time," he added.

"Where do you think she might have went to?" inquired the fox while he looked around, "Oh, never mind," said Tails after finding the right information source in the tent: a discarded roll of toilet paper was on the ground near the female's travel bag.

Shadow was disappointed to see Sonic happy for once, having a moment free of his ever-pursuing fan. However, that devious rival was not going to see a happy ending for Sonic. A high-pitched scream coming from the forest ended the torment of waiting. Knuckles was about to comment, but his mouth stayed shut since a demonic growl has made an immediate succession. Then, low frequency surges shook the ground beneath their feet, weakening periodically, as if the source was moving away. The power witnessed has given Sonic's face an indescribable expression. Fear, delight and anger; each left a mark on his face. The smell of upcoming action excited him, but the fact of it being solely related to his adoring fan discouraged him. The hero was not alone this time, but his support team did not make a friendly atmosphere.

"Only Amy screams like that," the clever fox concluded.

"I'm going to save her…from whatever scared her this time," Sonic told his teammates taking a heroic pose, which clashed with his voice. The hero was dependant on his team's opinion.

"Unless it's an ant," Knuckles sighed falsely. "How romantic."

A grin appeared on the fiendish monotreme's face. It made Sonic confused. He could not make decisions in such a situation easily.

"Anyone going to join me?" he asked, hoping for some loyal support, making that confident trademark smirk.

"You bet!" Tails exclaimed. The young fox was in a mood for an adventure with his 'big brother' like always.

"I'll go too," Rouge said, watching Knuckles' surprise grow.

"In that case count me in," the echidna responded to Rouge's offensive. She couldn't win this battle of thought.

"Okay! Let's go!" Sonic exclaimed happily, ready to rush into the forest.

Strangely enough, the other present hedgehog had not given a response on this topic and was rather amused to see the others leave him without a notice. Social status lacked importance in his mind. It was but a matter of Sonic's overgrown ego that he could tolerate as long as he had the upper hand, which was always on the flawless side.

Tails' good nature couldn't let him depart with Sonic when it meant leaving somebody alone in their everlasting misery, but the recent fight between the two hedgehogs convinced him that separation would be a good idea. So every flawed being entered the greenery compound. The wet foliage was unpleasant for touch, as it made their fur damp and cold, but evading all of it was impossible since the forest was not adapted for search parties. At least that was what they thought.

Droplets of water slid down the emerald leaves peacefully in their path until Knuckles' brute force moved trees whole, causing massive damage to the surrounding creations of autotrophy.

"Your talents are endless, aren't they?" Rouge asked with a smirk complementing her tone.

"Wanna change places?" Knuckles replied as the amount of work made his breath heavy, and words mangled.

The bat got scared of an uncomfortable situation that a decision like that could have created, "No, no! You keep doing your thing and I'll be doing mine," she said, assuring herself that the evil in him will be asleep.

Yet her hopes were never meant to be.

"Which is?" he asked, glaring at her.

"Oh, look! An open area!" exclaimed the bat and thanked her ever-present intuition and detection abilities.

A lot of grass appeared before them in the middle of flora's citadel. The scene would have made a surprise trail through their faces if it wasn't for the details. Trees, broken into pieces like toothpicks, lay on the ground as witnesses of a futile conflict with no winner present to take the blame. Life was mocked in the most brutal way imaginable. The group spread out to cover the area and they soon noticed large inch-deep holes everywhere. But it was merely a single clue. A sharp scent, which was causing a stinging, continuously magnifying sensation in their lungs, was present in the area. Plants turned into ashes and black marks on the ground left them without a reasonable answer.

Sonic felt just as awkward as everyone else in the situation. However, he was the first one to feel the shock a single piece of jewelry could give. The rodent saw a golden ring pushed into the soil in one of the concaves. It had her shine... He picked up the ring unable to breathe a word. No explanations were needed. Everyone understood that the damsel in distress needed a brave soul to guard her all the time. The flaws in such a security service were also obvious.

Then, Sonic returned from the world of his imagination with a happy curve on his face. His heroic services were in need once again.

"Hey, guys! Check this out!" Knuckles exclaimed and started moving a large amount of leaves and broken branches away from something that appeared to be a cave. Although it made a bitter impression on the rescue party, the fact that this cavern was not made by Mother Nature changed it soon. A sign saying: "Todschick Zirkus" was embedded into rock.

"Super Circus… Weird is more like it," thought the fox aloud.

Knuckles continued cleaning up the premises and found an old-looking wooden construction, no bigger than an automobile, crushed by a fallen tree. Upon closer inspection, fuse boxes and power sockets were found.

"It says: 'Warning! High voltage!' Hmm... Turn on the power switch, Knuckles," Tails ordered.

Knuckles looked at him oddly, "I'd rather let you do it. I'm not technology-friendly."

"I'll say," Sonic said with a snicker

Knuckles gave him the cold glare treatment, "Be quiet."

The echidna had just had enough time to forget his last series of accidents in Sonic's kitchen. Everything from the refrigerator door disaster to the evil microwave explosion has been remembered that very second. Knuckles couldn't help but wish something happened to his bluish friend before he could do his worst.

Soon, "Do you know what good ol' Knucklehead did to my kitchen?" shattered that hope.

No… the unfortunate echidna thought, but it was too late to stop his companion's mouth at work. Rouge let out a mocking chuckle, increasing his urge to kill small blue mammals.

He was dearly grateful to Tails, who fashionably ignored everything that was going on at that moment and turned the power switch on, making colorful lights slice the unsuspecting darkness inside the grotto. Carnival music echoed from the inside. Barrel organs, harmonicas, accordions and trumpets filled the air with melodic vibrations.

"There," Tails smiled and put his hands on his hips, happy to have conquered yet another piece of equipment.

"What are you guys waiting for?" asked Sonic, as impatience was rumbling in his brain, and without waiting for anyone, entered the odd cave. Everyone else's curiosity acted as a perfect excuse for an entrance without a ticket as well. A rusty ticket booth was passed without a notice, since there was no one to upkeep the order inside.

A tube-like staircase with a mosaic of bright light bulbs in the form of a smiling clown's face left everyone with a more pleasant impression than the desolate field.

The passage led them to an enormous open area with numerous bright-colored tents, stalls, carnival rides, and a striped big top towering above everything inside the cave.

High poles with speakers mounted on them, each adding its own portion of sound to the cacophony made by an old record hidden somewhere in the premises. The constant change of speed the record was played at reduced the first impression of that place to nothing. Extremely perky surroundings and the wide smiles of two-dimensional painted figures have lost their appeal to the group. The happiness industry has gone too far by one horrid mistake, letting the customers feel awkwardness instead of pleasure.

"The crawling niceness…" Knuckles murmured.

Tails looked at the structures and gulped.

"This is kind of creepy…" the fox said,

"I've found hot dogs!" Sonic broke the atmosphere with his usual cluelessness.

The hedgehog held a vacuum packet of sausages in his hand, and to everyone's disgust, he ate its contents with sheer delight.

Tails sweat-dropped, trying not to sound sickened, "Sonic… Do you imagine how old those were?"

"No," the reply arrived from a full mouth.

"You'll get food poisoning from those," Tails tried to reason further.

"Nah. Never have and never will," his companion answered with a smile, ready to shove another five sausages into his mouth. Luckily for the others, he was stopped in time and the already open cartridge fell down on the unsanitary floor, losing its temptation even in the eyes of Sonic.

"What did you do that for? I was eating those!" he complained.

"For your own good, that's for sure," the fox explained with a sigh.

"Okay, now where could have Amy gone to?" Rouge asked, curious to explore the cave.

"Is this hers?" Knuckles asked, picking up a dirty, but stylish glove. The reaction he got affirmed his assumption.

"Where did you find it?" asked Sonic.

"There," the echidna pointed at a nearby trail.

The strange marks on the ground they saw earlier outside have started there too. The periodically repeating dished spots looked as if they were some strange footprints. A few lines accompanying them gave them the idea of something being dragged on the ground. It all made a little more sense in Tails' mind then, but he decided to keep his thoughts to himself.

The gang simply followed the clear path, ignoring the flashing surroundings and small roller coasters ready to offer a moment of enjoyment for the customers. However, it wasn't meant to be that way. Soon the trail went through a badly damaged kiddy train ride. The entrance was smashed off the ground into a nearby cotton candy stall. The train itself was torn apart like a bad drawing, while half of the iron locomotive was lying on the ground. The clown painting with the circus' label on top was still attached to it, though, resembling the everlasting impression of happiness in man-made objects.

Support beams that held the ride's wooden roof intact were tossed off the train tracks, as if something too big to fit under the seven feet high space made its way through. Wreckage and the mostly untouched fair grounds made a clear contrast to the inspection team. It wasn't a hooligan's affair. Rage could not have made such consequences either. "Who?", "why?" and "how?" wrestled for domination in their heads.

The train tracks made a long oval, with half, including the beginning, on one side of the cave, and the second half - invisible, dug behind the solid rock in the form of a tunnel.

It wasn't a matter of time when the blue hedgehog raced into the tunnel, giving a hint for others to follow. Knuckles didn't obey at first, though.

"Be right back," he told the others and walked to each pole with fitted speakers. A few crashes were heard and the awful music stopped. Soon, the echidna was back and ready for teamwork.

"Here you guys are!" he exclaimed before he noticed a hole in the tunnel wall like the rest.

It appeared that the circus grounds did not end with the tunnel, thanks to a manifestation of brute force. Yellow tape with black letters painted on it was hanging from the hole's edges in a diagonal cross. It was torn in the middle, but nobody could deny the evident. Three letters with dots after each seemed so innocent and harmless if it weren't for the information they brought.

G.U.N.


	3. Tunnel Thoughts

Chapter 3: Tunnel Thoughts

They thought it all made sense. Nothing but man made destruction machines could have caused all the damage they saw. Slowly, one by one, the team entered the dark opening in the tunnel. They could feel the breath of darkness engulfing their bodies in its formless existence. Shadows took Sonic, then Tails and then – the rest of the group.

The blue hedgehog didn't seem to stop for the unknown. He simply went forth while continuously touching the wall, making sure he doesn't lose the right and, to his luck, the only way.

In an imaginable amount of time he understood the uselessness such a lead posed as and went back with an embarrassed smile, cunningly forged into a cocky grin that no one except his inflated ego could see.

Knuckles came in handy at that moment. With a single punch planted in the wall, a fireball was placed on it, lighting up the part of the cave they were in.

"A hundred and one uses for Knuckles! Use number sixty-seven: lamp," Sonic exclaimed with a snicker finishing his friend's temper jar in mortal delight.

Knuckles took a few steps towards his funny friend and got ready to supposedly place another light post near him.

"Use sixty-nine: Sonic smasher!" he shouted, presenting his fist to Sonic's face.

The hedgehog lost balance for a moment and fell onto the ground, hitting his head against the wall.

Knuckles looked satisfied. Sonic, on the other hand, did not.

"I always thought you sucked at math," he said in a nonchalant tone, rubbing his aching cheek.

Luckily, Knuckles let that last insult go without a generous compensation. He knew Sonic's problems with education all too well and didn't want to exploit that. He was saving the juicy facts for later.

"Echo!" the echidna exclaimed randomly.

A second later the cave was full of voices awaken by Knuckles' call. Each passed the message to the next, letting the chain lengthen and grow in all directions. It amused the furries for the first few seconds, as the noise didn't seem to stop, but awe soon turned to fear when pebbles started to crumble out of the ceiling. Firstly, bits no bigger than sand grains fell, followed by small pebbles and finalized with a few melon-sized rocks that could inflict a heavy amount of physical damage upon impact.

Tails sighed and told his friends to refrain from repeating such mistakes.

However, not everyone agreed with him. A sudden blaze of wind followed by an ear-splitting growl shook their senses like a tidal wave, followed by a large amount of rocks, too energetic to act as a ceiling. On top of that, light began retreating from the newly found tunnel.

Hard nuggets were coming closer to the floor in a salvo of perilous falls. An invisible maze was ready to crush anyone in the path of its walls under construction.

Rouge was the only one acquainted with being in such places, but even she could not stay calm when a large boulder fell down right behind her. The bat looked around to see a ton of rock resting on the spot she was standing on just a few seconds ago.

"Ha-ha...That...could have been me," she spoke nervously, taking a short breather leaning on the rock.

Later, it was figured that she was wrong. "Close" had to be redefined. Her sharp hearing let her receive warning signals coming from a stone, ready to fall on Tails, smashing his body into the ground and turning him into a mixture of bone, flesh and soil in the possible outcome.

Rouge tackled him, bruising his ankles against the ground, but pushing him away from a free one-way ticket to Shadowland.

"Ugh, thanks," he said, as delirious as Rouge was at first.

Meanwhile, Sonic played a game of hide and seek with the falling stones, hoping that he was not going to be dubbed 'it'.

Knuckles, unable to hold a graceful balance, but obliviously safe from smaller, football-sized projectiles, was being continuously sent down to lie down. He always attempted to arise, because most slugs were comparatively safe for his head.

Death was merciful this time and spread its wings above the search party, leaving them in different levels of torment, but alive. The terror stopped just as it began, in silence.

Knuckles fixed another 'light bulb' on the wall with his fists to check if anyone besides his earthed dignity was hurt. Nobody had any serious injuries, except Sonic, who had won a swelling bump on his noggin.

"And Knuckles, I don't think it's a good idea to punch the wall," the young fox said as he cleaned the dirt off his tails.

"I suppose you can see in the dark," Knuckles snapped back, overestimating the safety in his actions.

As if to approve Tails' words, an enormous iron plate fell down near the entrance to the tunnel. The surroundings began responding to vibration again with more bombs thrown in random directions.

This time nature could not outsmart them.

Sonic started twirling and swirling in place, which led to the forming of a twister. The vortex of speeding organic matter, created safely above other visible life forms, sucked in all of the falling rocks and once they stopped falling, let them all out. Unfortunately for the team, all of them were launched at the cave's entrance, increasing the blockage.

A hit was heard and light came out of the floor, thanks to Knuckles. The echidna looked around, but saw nothing fall on anyone in the premises, assuring himself of the technique's effectiveness.

"Good job, lamp boy!" Sonic mocked.

Knuckles ignored his loyal friend once again and after walking a few feet, repeated the process.

"How big is this place?" Tails asked, looking at Rouge.

The bat looked into the darkness intensely, "I don't see the other end from here."

The trip had lasted for over thirty minutes when drops of moisture were heard coming from the tunnel's depths. Sonic ran into the darkness to investigate, but a loud splash ended his short stroll.

"Help! I can't swim! Help!" he screamed while hitting an unknown amount of fluid with his palms mercilessly.

Tails ran to help his friend without a second thought, while Rouge, who saw the situation Sonic was in, remained calm on the outside, chuckling inside her mind.

Knuckles' fiery lights approached the hedgehog's location in a few moments to reveal him sitting in a puddle of liquid up to his chest. The danger level was not high, but that did not stop him from scaring the life out of his buddy, Tails, who had just managed to pull his scared friend out of the watery grave.

"Thanks, Tails!"

"You're welcome," Tails said while smiling weakly as he was squeezing the wetness out of his tails.

Something else troubled the juvenile genius. A strange smell was coming from his fur. He had not encountered it for a while, but a flashback of a gas leak he had come across after a plane's test flight explained the situation.

Then, another misfortune fell on the blue hedgehog's shoulders. Knuckles managed to get to the other side of the puddle with one leap to join the two with Rouge, landing beside them. Knuckles lit the premises again, since his other fireballs had already vanished. With some light available, he noticed that Sonic's quills were sprung up a lot more than usual. They were almost straight.

Meanwhile, Tails noted that Sonic's wet fur was touching a metal slab fixed into the rock.

"Ermm…Sonic?" Tails broke the silence.

"What?" Sonic replied with a question, still touching the metal block.

"You might want to move away from that wall. I think it makes a few...thousand volts go through your...isooctane-covered body," Tails reasoned with discomfort growing inside him, which reached climax when he noticed that his fur was also showing reaction similar to Sonic's.

"Oh, okay," the hero agreed verbally without realizing the common sense in Tails' words.

Alas, common sense was a moment too late. After attaching themselves to the surface, gasoline droplets left by the hedgehog's fur slid inside a small opening leading to a bunch of wires connected with a switch. The switch appeared to be the only thing keeping an enormous amount of power under control just by parting the main wires. However, the tiny opening in-between the copper cables disappeared thanks to a certain bluish hedgehog. Moisture short-circuited the system, silently welding the ends together, but not secretly enough to fool the anthromorphs' acute hearing.

"You know, this water thing smells funny," Knuckles said, expressing his thoughts while sniffing the air.

"It's not water, dense-head! It's gas!" Rouge exclaimed half-shocked, half-annoyed.

As if scared of her shouting, ignition ran from behind the metal slab and sparks were sent flying on the puddle's surface.

Sonic's eyes widened, as Tails' words had finally gotten an almost immediate reaction. The hedgehog knew that sparks plus fossil fuel were equal to an explosion. The sight of Rouge running away with Knuckles instinctively following the mental leader was enough of a hint for his next action.

Sonic got in a running stance just to be knocked down by Tails to a neighboring hole in the ground. An irritating metal thud was heard as the couple landed. The culprit and savior thought they were safe in what appeared to be an empty gas tank gully that now acted as a temporary fire shelter.

At that time, a small snake of fire crept down the wall into an area, where concentration of the combustible element was enough for a life-threatening situation Fire broke out and a blazing inferno spread along the tunnel at high speed, burning everything unprepared within its reach, disregarding any life forms.

The two could feel flames passing less than an inch above them. A measly part of an inch separated them from the cold Destroyer's grasp.

As thought, fire did not return after it left the small region the two could see. However, it did not escape without a trail of destruction. Colossal amounts of oxygen were taken away from the beings, who happened to be ill-timed enough, and replaced with noxious fumes, resembling car exhaust gasses. One enemy's retreat brought more, invisible, untouchable, but just as cruel, sparing no one.

"Now that was close!" Sonic exclaimed with mixed emotions in his voice.

The hedgehog was happy to be alive, excited about the despicable surroundings and discontent with 'dirty', 'smelly' air. Smog had always been limiting his speed and acting as the harshest of barriers, giving Eggman free odds against the blue mutant.

Tails coughed a bit in response and proposed an immediate evacuation to wherever the tunnel led to, as long as salvation had more oxygen and less carbon dioxide.

Guided by dim sparks of electricity the fox could see Sonic's grilled rear. If it weren't for the fox's mood, the situation of a half-roast hedgehog might have been laugh-worthy.

Hastily moving along the cave's turns, the unfortunate creatures didn't last long, as the oxygen supply became too little to keep their abilities in line with their wishes.

Tails cursed the moment, in which Sonic taught him not to put 'useless' safety-ensuring devices like gas masks and fire extinguishers into his luggage collection whenever leaving home. After all, the genius used to be a lot less extreme with risks before he met Sonic.

It might have been a choked-up end for the two heroes, but fate left a light on in their tunnel. The electrocution seemed to have shaken the lighting alive.

Tails could hear the dear fragrance of lamps buzzing and smell mesmerizing rust he longed for, coming from the light's direction.

Once the duo scuttled closer, the surroundings changed in their view. They saw a thick metal door crushed out of its reinforced-steel frames and smashed into the rock floor.

Tails had almost gasped at the sight. His mental Newton calculator ran out of zeros to show the number resembling the amount of force needed to accomplish such an amazing feat. The fire was unable to cause such damage in his opinion. An ashy Knuckles that acted as a shield for a mint-condition Rouge didn't have the months of time needed to punch such a heavy metal contraption out.

"Was this door like that when you guys got here?"

"Yeah. Knucklehead might have not saved my pricey clothes so… effectively if it weren't for that," Rouge responded, taking her time to pat the burned Knuckles on the unharmed back.

The echidna's silence was not a good sign. His brain might have gotten through a state of boiling in the tremendous heat. The permanent damage caused to the nerve tissue may not have killed him, but his validity for most mental activities could have suffered greatly.

"Owgh," platypus's cousin moaned. "My head hurts," he complained, blinking rapidly to soothe his eyes that he had hurt due to staring at the lovely flames.

Meanwhile, Sonic was acquainting himself with their new place of residence.

"Echo!" the degenerated son of intelligence shouted.

Echoes didn't seem to be friendly in that district. His intimidation turned into a silent growl and scream combination coming from an unknown location, but there were no satisfying results of forged response.

This time, they have gotten themselves into a relatively safe situation under a huge illuminated metal dome. The positive side was that the space was empty. Besides for a shiny red hangar door with a huge "3" on top and a hole in the middle, disregarding the knocked-off entrance, the place looked untouched by harm.

Numbered doors with a total of five that had menacing G.U.N. logos on each did not make a pleasant sight. Though, Tails could appreciate the laboratory-resembling surroundings. Yet, one thing puzzled him: why was the metal construction the size of a football field empty? There was only one way to find out.

"Sonic, could you go over to one of those doors and…" Tails explained obliviously to his listener's obliviousness of him doing so.

The turquoise one saved himself time on listening and gathered as much air as he could in his lungs to precede an eardrum-ringing manifestation of hunger for adventure.

"Echo-o!"

This time a giant was waiting to answer his call. "Echo" sounded from door to door, floor to ceiling, lamp to lamp.

"Slow echo," Sonic ingeniously remarked, pleased with finally getting a free conversation with his own sounds.

However, it was not a humorous matter. His playful ways have toyed around with the sound detectors hidden in various parts of the complex. All of them have also had speakers to reproduce the sound and activate a peril that none of them expected to see.

Sonic's exclamation lasted for a few more seconds until silence began roaming in the premises. It was then chased away by a loud clanking noise of the disfigured entrance door being replaced with a "fresh" one that was bigger. Their way out was blocked twice now.

"Something tells me you shouldn't have done…" Tails started explaining again.

An interruption ripped his words away. The half-sphere's middle began glowing red in the company of sirens wailing everywhere around them. Used to warn citizens before a nuclear attack or storm, the horrible noise irritated their ears while the ground was shaking below their feet.

It was the prologue to a high-tech defensive system springing into complete combat stance. All hangar doors except the damaged "number three" rose to the very top. The darkness behind each of them retreated, as illumination was turned on inside, revealing whatever an exclamation had triggered.

"Looks like G.U.N want to play," Sonic's adventure-hungry person announced.

Tails gulped.

Rouge patted Knuckles' shoulder and smiled.

Knuckles didn't consciously feel that he was going to be used as a shield yet again.


End file.
